The court was established in 2017 in the eastern city of Hangzhou to deal with legal disputes with a digital aspect. In a demonstration, authorities revealed how the Hangzhou Internet Court operates, featuring an online interface with litigants appearing by video chat as an AI judge – complete with on-screen avatar – prompts them to present their cases. A black-robed virtual judge sitting under China's national emblem was heard asking in a pre-trial meeting: "Does the defendant have any objection to the nature of the judicial blockchain evidence submitted by the plaintiff?" READ MORE: AI-manipulated media will be'WEAPONISED' to trick military

In a remarkable step to render human journalism obsolete, state news outlet Xinhua teamed up with search engine Sogou to create the world's first female AI news anchor. According to reports, the anchor, Xin Xiaomeng will make her first appearance in March, during the upcoming two sessions political meeting. As far as applying artificial intelligence in journalism goes, China is pushing the boundaries further than ever. Just four months ago, Xinhua debuted the first male AI News anchor during China's world internet conference in Wuzhen. But, that was just the beginning.

SHANGHAI – China's state-controlled news broadcasters have long been considered somewhat robotic in their daily recitation of pro-government propaganda and a pair of new presenters will do little to dispel that view. Calling it a "world first," the Xinhua News Agency this past week debuted a pair of virtual news anchors amid a state-directed embrace of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence. Based on the appearances of two flesh-and-blood Chinese news presenters, the computerized avatars read out text that is fed into their system, their mouths moving in tandem with the reports. Xinhua said the "AI Synthetic Anchors," one for Chinese and one for English news, were developed along with Sogou Inc., a Beijing-based creator of search engines and voice-recognition technology. China last year unveiled plans to become a world leader in AI and other high-tech fields, though it has since toned down the rhetoric amid a trade war with the United States, which has included accusations by President Donald Trump that China steals U.S. technologies.

China may be behind in the smart home industry, but research shows it will be a $22.8 billion business by 2018. However, one firm is getting a head started with a voice-activated, cloud-based smart home speaker that does something the leading devices can't - it speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. The speaker, from Chinese firm LingLong and known as the DingDong, has an AI with a music library of 3 million songs, can take memos and share updates regarding news, traffic and weather in what the firm calls'cinema-like sound quality'. LingLong DingDong is a a voice-activated, cloud-based smart home speaker designed with a music library of 3 million songs, can take memos and share updates about news, traffic and weather in what the firm calls'cinema-like sound quality' LingLong DingDong is China's voice-activated, cloud-based smart home speaker that speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin that costs $118. It takes memos, organize schedules and share updates about news, traffic and weather.

China has revealed the first pictures of the rover it is going to send to mars in 2020. The newly-unveiled little robot will explore the planet for three months, according to state media, and it is the latest part of China's ambitious and expensive space programme. China became the third country to put a man in space, after the US and Russia, in 2003. Since then it has been aiming at other achievements in its space programme. From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater.